French TV

As an aside, I wonder if France Ô will gain France 4's current HD slot on TNT? Currently Ô and Franceinfo are in SD on DTT.

Incidentally I think Franceinfo is in HD only behind a paywall (except the YouTube stream), which would seem strange to those of us in the UK for a PSB channel.

Speaking of France•tv, it has been announced that France•2 is calling for videos, shot by people like you and me, for new idents and ad break bumpers.

https://www.france.tv//famillefrance2/

In that sense, it's not a very different idea from what TV2 did in Denmark. I'm curious about what the result could be. I remember France 4 tried the same thing a few years ago but a.f.a.i.k. none of the videos sent to their "France 4 Mashup" website made it on the air.



It was also announced that France•Ô could be, just like France•4, removed from television.

Moving Franceinfo: from DTT channel 27 to DTT channel 14 after the departure of France•4 could be part of the plans although nothing was announced about that particular point. It would have the advantage of placing Franceinfo: right before its competitors BFMTV and CNews.

As for DTT channel 19, I guess that Groupe TF1, which owns LCI (also a news channel currently broadcast in SD), would probably ask for LCI to be moved from DTT 26 (SD) to DTT 19 (HD) if Franceinfo: were to be moved from DTT 27 (SD) to DTT 14 (HD).

Wait and see, I guess.

I suspect France 2 will end up having elements of France 4 in its presentation and programming as BBC One has had to do after the linear closure of BBC Three.

Looks like I'll have to get my fix of Un Gars, Une Fille on YouTube instead! (Oh I would, but the YouTube channel is geoblocked)

More about the series in English.

https://chateaucrescentine.wordpress.com/2014/09/09/un-gars-une-fille-a-funny-french-series/

Another thing I forgot to mention is that I've found MyCanal's FTA streams work in the UK without the use of Smart DNS or a VPN. Those are C8, CSTAR, CNEWS and Infosport+. The app on Google Play can also be downloaded from the store with a UK account.

This may be an indirect advantage of the recent EU directive where paid content from EU member states can be shown in other countries. Molotov for example is unblocked in Britain for 28 days, same for NOW TV and SkyGo in France.

Good show, that - but I didn't know there was a French version of it! I remembered the Quebec one from years ago.

Does anyone know if TV5MONDE still puts subtitles on its Quebec French series but not any other ones? That always seemed slightly, uh, dismissive.

Franceinfo sees some of it's best figures during the summer downtime.

http://www.toutelatele.com/audiences-franceinfo-plebiscitee-bfmtv-lci-et-cnews-bousculees-102331

There was even a crossover episode where the actors from the Quebec version met Jean and Alexandra in France.

Looking at the French tv schedules, it appears they launch their autumn season of programmes on August 27, which also sees regular daytime programmes return on France 2 and normal presenters back on news bulletins.

I'd assume that date will be when Franceinfo returns to themed presenter programming on weekdays.

As M6 went into holiday mode a bit later than TF1 and France Télévisions, they may continue with the holiday format for a bit longer.

Old news, but worth reporting on.

TF1 and M6 are teaming up with France Télévisions to provide a rival pay IPTV and VOD service to market leading Molotov.tv.

Salto will provide live tv and VOD from all three media groups, including back catalogue content for around the 7€ mark. No idea if the content will be 1080p like Molotov or 720p.

All three groups will continue to operate their free catch-up services MyTF1, France.tv and 6play.

Incidentally Molotov have taken legal action against the M6 Group, who want Molotov to move M6's FTA channels to the paid tier (Molotov Extended) where sister channels Paris Premiére and Teva are, so the company can monetise all of their channels. This has led to M6, W9 and 6ter without replay or bookmark functions, leaving them with just the live 1080p streams on the free (720p) and Molotov Plus subscriptions. (Molotov plus is a 4€ add-on for the FTA channels with 100 hours recording time and 1080p quality streams).

Some figures from TF1 Group. They're claiming that LCI is now the second most watched news channel in France.

#AUDIENCES #AOUT ☀️@GroupeTF1 En ↗️ sur FRDA -50 & 25-49 sur 1 an@TF1 En ↗️ sur FRDA -50 sur 1 an@LCI 2° chaîne d'Info@TMCtv En ↗️ toutes les cibles sur 1 an@tfx Leader TNT 15-24 & Record FRDA -50 depuis Juin 2017@TF1SeriesFilms Meilleur mois sur 4+ cette année pic.twitter.com/PwzinqYOje

— TF1 Pro (@TF1Pro) September 3, 2018

Philippe Eidel, the co-composer of the sound identities for Canal+ in 1984 and in 1995, and of the sound identity for M6 in 1987, died on the 6th of September, at age 61.

Together with Arnaud Devos, he created iconic musical scores for iconic pieces of broadcast design – often designed by Étienne Robial. Many French viewers still have in mind the musical jingle of Canal+. A few of his melodies still survive today, for example in the intro of Turbo , a programme about cars.

SOUND STARTS AT 0:09


SOUND STARTS AT 1:53 - Contains flashing images - The Turbo intro is at 2:57, compare it with the current intro >by clicking here<


SOUND STARTS AT 0:45 - Contains flashing images - The Nulle Part Ailleurs intro at the end was not composed by Eidel and Devos


Philippe Eidel was also a "world music" composer as well as a movie theme composer, and, in his early days, worked with French rock bands Indochine and Taxi Girl.

In French, the Lenodal website published an article about his death and his work.

Arte has launched in UHD 4DR as an exclusive to the IPTV service Molotov.